Just like every end of year, I am awarding the Golden Alice for outstanding achievements in the field of crypto history and codebreaking. Here are the winners 2018.

Likeintheyearsbefore, my last blog entry of the year is dedicated to the Golden Alice Awards. The Golden Alice is awarded for outstanding achievements in the field of codebreaking and crypto history. There are eight categories.

Golden Alice 2018 for Best Codebreaking

Like in the years before, many of my readers have solved cryptograms I introduced on this blog. There are two persons that were especially successful:

Thomas Bosbach has been the most active reader on this blog in 2018. He solved at least a dozen crypto mysteries, including a set of cryptograms from the Thirty YearsWar and several encrypted postcards. I congratulate Thomas on the Golden Alice 2018 in the “Best Codebreaking” category.

Armin Krauss, Narga, Jim Gillogly, George Lasry, Nils Kopal and others broke unsolved cryptograms, too. It goes without saying that my blog would be almost worthless without the contributions of all these great codebreakers.

Golden Alice 2017 for Best Book

Contrary to 2017, 2018 has not been an especially good year with regards to crypto history books. To be honest, I am aware of only one crypto history book that has been published this year: Dermot Turing’s XY&Z – The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken.

I had the pleasure to listen to a talk given by Dermot …

Source: Schmeh

… about his new book on September 12 in the Polish Embassy in London (here’s a video about this lecture on FaceBook). The lecture and the social event afterwards were very interesting, and so is Dermot’s book. So, the Golden Alice Award 2018 in the “Best Book” category goes to Dermot Turing and his work XY&Z – The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken.

Golden Alice 2018 for Best TV Documentary

I am not aware of a new TV documentary about codebreaking or crypto history that aired in 2018 (if you know one, please let me know). So, no Golden Alice is awarded in the “Best TV Documentary” category this year.

Golden Alice 2018 for Best Event

The most outstanding crypto history event in 2018 was the HistoCrypt 2018 in Uppsala, Sweden.

Source: Schmeh

This great event, which gathered crypto history experts from all over the world, has absolutely deserved the Golden Alice in the “Best Event” category. It goes without saying that I am looking forward to the next HistoCrypt issue, which will take place in Mons, Belgium, in June 2019. The Call for Papers will be published soon.

Golden Alice 2018 for Encrypted Book

Encrypted books are one of my favorite topics. In 2018 my Encrypted Book List has grown from 89 to 94 entries. Now the question is, which newbie is the most interesting one. In my view it’s the diary of Austrian servant and soldier Siegfried Schwabl (born 1917). The plaintext is known, but was not published. Blog Reader Armin Krauß deciphered an excerpt I introduced on my blog.

Sharen mit:

Klaus! It is too bad you cannot award the Golden Alice to yourself, because you should be recognized for the most diverse, interesting, entertaining and informative cipher blog of 2018… and before, by the way.

Klaus, thank you very much for the great honor! Cryptology would not have become my hobby without your blog, so I agree with Richard, Thomas, Tobias and George that the Golden Alice “readers’ choice” should be awarded to you! At least a Golden Bob 🙂

By the way, I hope that I will find more time for my hobby this year and that I will more frequently show up on your blog!